Ha Long Bay

As mentioned before, I wanted to go to one more destination in Vietnam before moving on.

Therefore, today I was on my way to a 2D1N cruise in Ha Long Bay.

Ha Long Bay - a few short facts
• “Hạ Long” means “Descending Dragon” in Vietnamese. Legend says dragons
descended from the sky to protect the area, creating the islands with their tails.
• about 1,969 islands (limestone karsts) in total.
• UNESCO World Heritage Site

5 people including me were on the 3h bus ride, though we picked up more people along the way. Whom we also - thankfully (!!!) - dropped off before we others went on the cruise.

The family in question was… pushing my limits of tolerance, putting it gently. My limits did throw in the towel after a brave - albeit short - fight and made way to indignation, frustration and anger.
One man was lying down in the back row - just behind where I was trying to make my noise-cancelling headphones a permanent part of me.

He started watching reels at full volume, had kicked off his slippers and positioned his naked, gross feet around my hypersensitive, neutral-odour loving head.

My pulse went through the roof. But, when making contact in such instances, my voice is sugary-sweet and soothing (like Dolores Umbridge) to get them to behave like a considerate human being. I kid, of course. That wouldn’t be entirely diplomatic. 😁

I did kindly ask the guy to please use headphones to listen to his videos.

Message received. And ignored.

Well, yeah.

Then another guy sat down in the row next to me, on the other side of the aisle.
The exact same case.

I was furious. I sat where I was for a reason: to have my peace and quiet. 😁

I truly question what is happening to humanity. When did consideration become a luxury that only a few people know about and even fewer practise? I’m truly exasperated here because I just don’t get it. Do people know about the Golden Rule? Or do they just have a higher tolerance for everyone’s staggering egotism?

Anyway…

Aboard the cruise, the 2 young Scots, Cian and Martha; Nicolas from Belgium and Jian from the Netherlands; and I got to know each other better and had lunch.

Our first stop of the day in the bay was Sung Sot Cave.

It’s a cave featuring 3 chambers, one bigger than the other, as well as a staggering amount of tourists.

Tourists who LOVED posing for photos. Which was problematic in the first chamber, the smallest of them. To get to the other chamber, there was a smaller tunnel to go through, wide enough for one person.

Not too much of a problem if people just walk through swiftly and do NOT stop in the middle of the entrance for their elaborate photo session with 10 different poses for each family member.

The guides yelled at the people not to stop and keep it moving – the whole cave was filled with people and more were coming by the second.

To no avail. Which again makes me ask: What the hell is wrong with people?

The third chamber was truly spacious and a great location for an extended stroll. It offered a great view towards the exit of the cave, sunlight mysteriously illuminating the stalactites and stalagmites surrounding it.

After the spelunking was done (phew!), we were headed back to the boat and went to a kayaking spot.

Nothing too fascinating there, apart from great views, a burning sun, a surprise cave and a LOT of trash swimming in the sea…

After the kayaking, we hopped into the water to cool down a bit. But I’m not sure how “healthy” that all was, considering what was swimming about 200m away from us…
From this activity on, we were joined by 10 more people on the cruise: 6 Aussies living up to every single stereotype, as well as 4 Brits. Two of the latter I enjoyed chatting with in particular.

In the evening, we had dinner on deck, witnessing the setting sun vanishing behind a cloud, a faint hue of red suggesting what could have been if the cloud had been a little, well, less. 😁

What followed was two drinking games in which I participated. With water. 😁

Before going to bed, we tried our hands at squid fishing.

However, not a single squid appeared at all. 😁

I finally turned in for the night, loving having my own cabin with en-suite bathroom.

I would have preferred to have more time on the boat just to stay in there.Read more